Rep. Steve King: "Celebrate" The Constitution By Rewriting It

September 19, 2011 12:24 pm ET
- by Matt Finkelstein

Whether it's 'saving' Medicare
by dismantling
it or increasing revenues
by cutting
taxes, there is no shortage of glaring contradictions between Republican
talking points and actual conservative policies. But perhaps none is more absurd than the
obsession many "constitutional conservatives" have with rewriting the
Constitution.

For example, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) commemorated
Constitution Day this weekend with a press release demanding
a constitutional amendment that would, among other things, forbid deficits
and require a two-thirds supermajority of Congress to raise taxes.

Now here's what King has to say about the Constitution in
his official congressional bio:

He believes the Constitution means
what it says and that it should be read in light of the intent of our founding
fathers. King is never caught without a copy of the Constitution in his coat
pocket.

If many
"constitutional conservatives" had their way, Americans
would lose Medicare and
Social Security, the minimum wage and child labor laws, federal funding of
education, and even civil rights protections — all in the name of the
Constitution. The Center for American Progress has much more on how the far
right wants to upend the founding document HERE.